Pokémon no

Your husband isn’t just obsessed with a game, he wants out. Plus: On the topic of sneaky facials, the consensus is “uncool.”

Q I can't believe this is why I'm finally writing you. My husband is using Pokémon GO as an excuse to stay out until 5am with another woman. She is beautiful and about a decade younger than him, and he won't hear me out on why this is bothersome. Our work schedules don't match up, and he always wants me to meet him in the wee hours of the morning after I've worked a full day shift and done all the work looking after our pets.

I can give him the benefit of the doubt and be totally fine with him wanting to stay out after work for a few drinks with friends, even though I'm too tired to join them, but Pokémon GO until 5am alone with a twentysomething for four straight weeks?! It's driving me crazy. I told him how I feel, and he says it's my fault for "never wanting to do anything." (I don't consider walking around staring at a phone "doing something.")

I told him I feel like he doesn't even like me anymore, and he didn't even acknowledge my feelings with a response. With the craze this has become, we can't be the only couple with this problem. I don't think me enabling his actions by joining the game is the answer, but I'd be absolutely gutted if this game was the straw that broke up our 10-year relationship. Please help. —Pokémon GO Means No

A Second Life, SimCity, Quake, Counter-Strike, World of Warcraft, Minecraft—it's always something.

By which I mean to say, PGMN, Pokémon GO isn't destroying your marriage now, just as SimCity wasn't destroying marriages 15 years ago. Your husband is destroying your marriage. He's being selfish and inconsiderate and cruel. He doesn't care enough about you to prioritize your feelings—or even acknowledge them, it seems.

When a partner's actions are clearly saying, "I'm choosing this thing—this video game, this bowling league, this whatever—over you," they're almost always saying this, as well: "I don't want to be with you anymore, but I don't have the courage or the decency to leave so I'm going to neglect you until you get fed up and leave me."

Let him have his ridiculous obsessions—with this game, with this girl—and when he comes to his senses and abandons Pokémon GO, just like people came to their senses and walked away from Second Life a decade ago, you'll be in a better position to decide whether you want to leave him.

Q I hooked up with this hot married couple. We'd done it before, and my expectations were shaped by previous (fun) experiences with them. But the sex wasn't good this time. That would be fine—sometimes it just doesn't work, and I am an adult about it—but for the specific reason it wasn't good: The husband came on my face after I specifically told him not to do that. I used my words. He still blew a load in my face and then sheepishly kinda apologized afterwards. He said he didn't mean to do it and that he was aiming at my boobs. I do not believe it for a second.

It was an "ask for forgiveness, not for permission" kind of thing—I could see that on his face. He looooves facials. So that sealed my decision to not sleep with them again, which I told them about. I consider a load in my face against my will to be a big violation of my trust/friendship. The couple thinks I'm overreacting and that a load in your face should be a forgivable offense. I'm not going to change my mind, but I am curious what you think about sneaky facials.
—Unwanted Semen Angers! Unicorn
Seeking Advice!

A Sneaky facials are sneaky, and I don't approve of sneakiness in the sack. People should be straightforward and direct; they should communicate their wants, needs and limits clearly; and we should all err on the side of solicitousness, i.e., drawing new sex partners out about their wants, needs and limits, because some folks have a hard time using their words where sex is concerned.

You used your words, USA!USA!, and this dude violated your clearly communicated wants, needs and limits. I'm glad you let them know you were upset and why you weren't going to see them again. Single women who want to hook up with married couples are hard to come by and in—that's why you're called unicorns—and his selfish disregard for your limits, his clear violation of your trust, cost them a unicorn.

Q I have two questions. 1. I saw a sex worker for a legit sensual massage that turned into fooling around. Once that happened, he mentioned "making" straight guys have sex with him, wanting to give massages to teenagers and he talked dirty about younger boys. I know this could all be provocative fantasy talk, but I had a weird feeling about him before meeting. Who would I even disclose this to if that were the right thing to do, and how would I do so while protecting his (should be legal) right to trade ass for cash?

2. Furthermore, I'm a thirsty genderqueer girl plotting her escape from a suburban town. I'm not going to be here long enough to look for an LTR. How can I satisfy my lust safely? It seems like every time I hook up with someone, they disclose intense drug use or other risky behaviour after the fact.
—Fantasizing Lecherously About Good Sex

A 1. There's no licensing board for sex workers—there's no accrediting organization, no sex-work equivalent of the legal profession's bar association (and most sex workers would oppose the establishment of one)—so there's nowhere you can go to report this guy. If he confessed to an actual crime, FLAGS, you could go to the police, and they might even do something about it. But the police are unlikely to get involved if he was just fantasizing; it's not against the law to engage in dirty talk, even extremely fucked -up/ickily transgressive/NOT OK dirty talk.

2. Masturbation is the safest way to satisfy your lust until you get your ass out of that druggy suburb full of risky-sex junkies and to the big city, where we urbanites drink only hot tea, snort only in derision and use only condoms religiously.

Tags

Comments

Remember, it's entirely possible to disagree without spiralling into a thread of negativity and personal attacks. We have the right to remove (and you have the right to report) any comments that go against our policy.